Another Foggy morning

Once again Queensbury was blanked out by the dreaded fog this morning and just as the sun started to burn its way through the fog got even thicker and the day stayed misty until late afternoon, one of the hazards of living at the top of the hill.
A bright evening followed but I was grounded, decorating the bathroom, no sense of priorities these women.
When I eventually escaped to go dog walking a few Swallows were over Foxhill heading >S and the jackdaw roost were racing >N to get a good position for the night.
A single Kestrel hovered over the fields which was a pleasing sight as we now seem to get more Sparrowhawk sightings than Kestrels.
How these nights are drawing in, 2000hrs and almost dark, 6 months of dark evenings, what an awful thought..yuk
Now Ive cheered you all up I,ll go.
BS

In search of the Ospreys

South over Ogden golf course

Sunset at Ogden

Thinking it was an ideal evening for a moving Osprey with a light southerly breeze, showers and clear skies I skived off my chores and walked from Ogden to the Withens where I was proved wrong. At least I got the moving bit right with Black Terns showing up in the area, just got the species and location wrong. Never the less it was a good walk and Swallows were piling through the Withens Gap, that was until a fighter jet come steaming through and after that I never saw another Swallow. Jays were plentiful but they were local birds and Woodpigeons were coming from all directions to roost in the plantation.

The water held the usual Common and Black Headeds as well as 4 LBBs and a Gt Crested Grebe was curled up asleep in the centre.BS

By this time cars were rolling in to the area so I thought it was time I left  before they started handing out the wakky baccer.

Movers :-

127 Swallow..............................>S

BS

A bit of a quiet do

Empty skies this morning in the strong SE>5 with no signs of visible migration. By mid day swallows were heading through >S but only in small numbers up to yesterdays count. There must have been an early first light Meadow Pipit movement going by NKs report with yesterday afternoons large number of Mipits gone from Soil Hil today.
The jackdaws that go >N over Queensbury every evening to roost at Hewenden and Wilsden are now coming over earlier at around 1900hrs. They have now grown in numbers to about 250 strong, and to think that when I started birding a local Jackdaw was a mega tick and we used to be amazed to see such numbers to the north of Skipton.
 PS. May be able to bird instead of work soon as I have just been told by e mail that I have won yet another 1 million pound prize ,this time from British tobacco promotions, lucky me ! wonder if anyone ever believes these toss pots.
BS

Soil Hill/ Ned Hill/Causeway Foot Col.

Causway Foot Col from Ned Hill

                                                     Air Ambulance in action

Soil Hill was alive with birds on the new sown area to the east of the hill.Around 150 Meadow Pipits, 8 Skylark,3 Pied Wagtails and oddly 2 Dunnocks were scratting about on the soil,could be worth keeping a look out here. A flock of 33 Linnet were very mobile
1 hours watching from the Ned Hill track over the Causeway Foot col produced hirundines still pouring through.

Movers :-
193 Swallows...............................>S
14 House Martin..........................>S
3 Sand Martin.............................>S
1 Hobby like raptor over Hunter Hill but too hazy to i.d.
BS

Fly Flatts/ Hunter Hill

The Nab, Fly Flatts

Soil Hill from Hunter Hill

Queensbury from Hunter Hill

Fly Flatts.  0730-0930hrs  Cold SE>5  cloudy with some sun. Damping in the wind.

A hard work morning with birds to search for in the strong wind. Birds on the ground and on the water were near non existant but some movement kept the interest going. Swallows were the bird of the morning moving up the Paul Clough valley and coming through low in the shelter of the Nab all south. A mid morning move to Hunter Hill found better conditions with the wind down to SE>3 and still Swallows coming through with a few House Martins mixed in. DCB was missing the Swallows at his side of the hill but he pipped me by getting a couple of Swift.

Movers :-

FLY FLATTS

83 Swallow..................................... >S

48 Meadow Pipit............................ >S  The first south movement this autumn

2 Jay............................................ >W

4 Alba Wagtail.............................. >W

1 Grey Wagtail.............................. >W

HUNTER HILL  0930-1030hrs

1 Tree Pipit................................>SW

69 Swallow..............................>S

11 Meadow Pipit.....................>S

1 Curlew.................................>W

9 House Martin........................>S

3 Wheatear.............................on deck

Other... c45 Goldfinch flock

BS

A misty morn.

Sun burning through the mist early a.m.

Influx of Canada geese at Shelf Moor pond

This tells a story, garage neighbour Dave stock piling

logs ready for another Queensbury winter.

A quiet morning with the mist hanging around building height with blue skies above.

The only birds of note were Swallows very high in the clear blue sky all >S.

Shelf Moor pond this evening held 43 Canada Geese and 2 Moorhen, the maximum count for Canadas here is usually 12 so these look like moving birds or breeders and young dispersing.

Several Swallows were blogging but there were no sign of the Lapwing flock.

BS

Queensbury Today

 Ollie not amused after a wet birding trip to Ogden on Sunday.                              

Slight movement showing this a.m. as the mist lifted with Meadow Pipits moving through in 2s and 3s. Several Swallows headed >SW and a single Cormorant went over the garage mid morning very high and >NW. Raptor movement seems to have stopped for the moment and hopefully Ospreys will be the next through.
6 Common Gull and 2 BH gulls were in Foxhill Park at lunchtime and 3 LBBs headed >N.

Meadow Pipits.............................18 >W
Swallow.......................................23 >SW
Cormorant...................................1 >NW
BS

Yellow Legged or LBB ?

This is the gull in question at Ogden though the photos were distant and in heavy rain. I took these Sunday morning and pondered on Yellow Legged finally passing it off as LBB. On looking at the photos it has the head of a YL although the mantle is slightly darker . NK also had a bird he described as YL during the week which is possibly the same bird.

Looking at the photos now I would tend to go for Yellow Legged.

Thanks for the sun dog/halo info DCB.

BS

Mysterious Skies,Halos and Sun Dogs

The Topsy Turvy Rainbow taken yesterday evening

Photos courtesy David Marshall, Qby.

Sun Dog over Foxhill yesterday evening.  BS

Strange skies over Queensbury yesterday evening ,31st. Several sun dogs were showing over Foxhill as the sun was going down and as I got to work this morning David Marshall,who lives next to the garage showed me the inverted rainbow photos that he,d taken on the same evening a little earlier. Perhaps DCB or someone will be able to explain these to us, its a bit out of my depth.

Well done to active birders today with 2 good reports, 5 September Swifts from DJS and a cream crown Marsh Harrier from NK both from the Hunter Hill area.

BS

North Yorkshire 3 Peaks from Soil Hill

Ingleborough

Pen-y-ghent

Great Whernside

Just some of the scenery that can be viewed from Soil Hill. Also on show on a clear day is, the north yorks white horse, Humber Bridge, Grimsby tower, York Minster, Selby Abbey, Hambleton Hills and many more local landmarks. Well it gives me something to do when the birding is quiet.

BS.

Soil Hill p.m.

Starlings piling through

Soil Hill. pm visit   75% cloud cover but some sun. Dead calm.

As this morning skies were relatively quiet apart from Swallows moving through very high up. Blogging Mipits were everywhere probably ready for tomorrows early morning move.

At 1530hrs I scoped a massive  flock of birds very high and to the north towards Ingleborough and as they got nearer I could see they were Starlings. The flock spread out to a broad front between Soil Hill and the wind turbines and carried on through Causeway Foot col and down the Calder Valley.

Movers :-

38 Swallows............................>SE

182 Starling.............................>S

2 Wheatear on deck

Other :-

c50 Blogging Meadow Pipit

c 40 Linnet

11 Woodpigeons, sev were juvs, no white neck band.

Sev Common and LBB gulls moving to TMR and several >S, probably to roost.

BS

Blue but empty skies, Fly Flatts

Blue Skies and Blue Water,shame about the birds

Fly Flatts   0730- 1000hrs    icy cold N>5 decreasing >4 Wall to wall sunshine and clear skies.

Just goes to show that the weather we like,the birds dont. A cracking morning apart from the cold wind but very little movement in contrast to yesterday when it was teaming down and birds were plenty.
The moors are now near abandoned and silent other than a few Red Grouse with no Curlew or Skylark to be heard and even the geese have moved on. The water held 1 Canada goose and 3 Mallard and that was it.
No sign of Twite though there were several Wheatear and blogging Mipits around the feeding station area.

Movers :-
39 Meadow Pipit..................................>NW
41 Swallow..........................................>NE then >SE when wind speed lowered.
2 House Martin....................................>S
1 Alba Wagtail....................................>W
2 Grey Wagtail....................................>W
2 Snipe...............................................>W
11 Lapwing........................................>E
7 Wheatear........................................ on deck, all northerns.

Other :-
70+ blogging Meadow Pipit
4 Red Grouse
3 Kestrel
1 juv LBB........>N
+ usual corvids
BS

Suprising what you can see from Soil Hill

DJS on Foreside Lane...

DCB on Windy Corner

                                             Sparrowhawk moving through.

Soil Hill p.m.visit   1515-1630hrs.  Strong NNW>6 gusting 7  Bright and sunny.

Blowing a gale on the hill and struggled to stay upright. Far too windy for sky movement although a few Swallows rocketed through and 2 Sand Martin over the NK pond boosted moral.
Received 2 phone calls whilst up there with birders wanting to know if I was the idiot stood there on the highest point in that wind. First was from DJS down on Foreside Lane about  half a mile below me hoping for something good on the fringe of the moor ,and the second from DCB on Windy Corner at his watchpoint, about a mile away, as the crow flys, who was probably getting blown about as much as me. Good to see you out giving it a go lads.

Movers
18 Swallow.........................>SE
2 Sand Martin....................>SE
1 Sparrowhawk.................>S but had the movement of a local bird.
BS

Migration in the rain

If you enlarge it the dots are Swallows

One of each, LBB, Common, BH.

2nd year LBB

Ogden.  0800-1000 hrs.  Strong WNW>5  Heavy rain followed by torrential showers.

If theres one thing in life you can depend on its Bank Holiday weather!

An horrendious early morning made Fly Flatts a no go so headed to Ogden where there is at least some shelter from the elements thought as I discovered , very little.

Not suprisingly it started off quiet so it was round to check the gulls first job to find several Commons and Black Headeds and 4 LBBs, one of which was a very light phase but try as I may I couldnt make it into a Yellow Legged.

Meadow Pipits were moving over steady and I counted 8 very camera shy Grey Wagtails grounded with the rain.  Theres something on my camera that when I focus and start to press the button the bird flys?

By 0930 the rain was lashing down and thats when the excitement happened. Suddenly the sky was full of moving Swallows coming over in swarms in the torrential rain and these were closely followed by 6 seperate Cormorants all >SE. When the rain stopped so did the birds, just a 15 minute shower brightened up my morning.

See rain soaked poor photos of Cormorants below.

Movers

51 Meadow Pipit................................>W

242 Swallow......................................>SE

17 House Martin................................>SE

4 Snipe.............................................>W

3 Alba Wagtail..................................>W

8 Grey Wagtail.................................on deck

6 Cormorant......................................>SE

BS

Cormorants moving in Torrential Rain

Excuse bad photos but lucky to get any in the conditions

BS